User talk:Eequor/Reference/Google Gulp

Google Gulp is a line of smart drinks produced by Google. According to the company, these beverages optimize one's use of the Google search engine by increasing the drinker's intelligence. It is claimed this boost is achieved through real-time analysis of the user's DNA and carefully tailored adjustments to neurotransmitters in the brain (a patented technology termed Auto-Drink). As of April, 2005, Google Gulp is available in four flavors: Beta-Carroty, Glutamate Grape, Sugar-Free Radical, and Sero-Tonic Water.

The beverage is ostensibly free, and may be obtained by returning the cap of a Google Gulp bottle to a local grocery store. To those who do not yet have a cap, Google suggests asking one's friends for such a cap. This novel method of distribution is similar to invite only online services such as Gmail.

Google Gulp is currently in a limited-release beta phase. When questioned about a final release, Google cites concerns over potential competition from Microsoft.

Ursa Major

Google Gulp has its origins in the 20% project of Google's vice president of operations Urs Hoelzle. During this project, intended as a search for yet unknown species, Hoelzle took one day each week to collect samples from plants in Bolivian rain forests. On July 11, 2003, while gathering samples from epiphytes in a kapok tree in the Cordillera Apolobamba mountain range between Bolivia and Peru, Hoelzle obtained a leaf from a previously undiscovered variety of strangler fig. Laboratory analysis revealed the leaf contained an intriguing chemical compound now informally dubbed Ursa Major.

Method of action

Along with Ursa Major, one of the active ingredients in Google Gulp is a monoamine oxidase inhibitor or MAOI (MAOIs are typically used as antidepressants). In addition, Beta Carroty contains beta carotene; Glutamate Grape contains glutamate; Sugar-Free Radical contains (perhaps misleadingly) not free radicals, but antioxidants; and Sero-Tonic Water contains selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs, also a type of antidepressant). It should be noted that combining SSRIs and MAOIs often leads quickly to a potentially fatal condition associated with seizure and coma.

Google Gulp and privacy

According to Google, the beverage occasionally sends data about one's use of the product via a wireless transmitter in the base of the Google Gulp bottle. This data is received at the GulpPlex:

...a heavily guarded, massively parallel server farm whose location is known only to Eric Schmidt, who carries its GPS coordinates on a 64-bit-encrypted smart card locked in a stainless-steel briefcase handcuffed to his right wrist.

References

• Google Gulp. Google, 2005.